1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic performance apparatus for sequentially reading out performance data sequentially stored in a performance data memory and executing an automatic performance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some conventional automatic performance apparatuses have a function of storing performance information input by a player in a memory unit and reproducing musical sounds from the performance information to execute an automatic performance.
An example of an automatic performance apparatus of this type is a so-called event recording/reproducing type automatic performance apparatus disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. Sho 58-211191 or Japanese Examined Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. Sho 60-12638. This apparatus stores performance data for an automatic performance as an "event" and reproduces musical sounds from the performance data upon automatic performance.
In such an automatic performance apparatus, a player sometimes desires to change a part of stored performance information. A conventional automatic performance apparatus, however, cannot edit performance information. That is, in the conventional automatic performance apparatus, stored performance information is read out simply at a key ON timing of a player, and a tone is generated in accordance with the readout performance information. An address pointer is then incremented (stepped up) to performance information for generating the next tone, and tones are generated in accordance with performance information sequentially designated by the address pointer. Therefore, it is difficult to set the address pointer at specific performance information to be edited in a plurality of pieces of performance information, i.e., it is difficult to edit performance information.
In addition, when automatic performance data is recorded by an event system, it is difficult to check a measure position in the performance data due to the event method. For example, in order to access data of an nth measure, data is sequentially read out from the first event data and a time is sequentially added assuming that a time period of one measure is T. When an addition time becomes T.times.n, the corresponding position is recognized as the nth measure. Therefore, although the event method has a high data compression effect, this method is not suitable for editing, i.e., a case in which a part of stored performance data is to be changed.
Furthermore, in order to edit performance information in the above conventional apparatus, the address pointer is set at a position to be edited by various methods, and then a recording mode is set to record performance data. If, however, editing is executed for a position sustaining a tone, the sustained tone is continuously generated. As a result, desired performance data is not obtained after editing.